Starting as a spiritual plant master, may I eventually become the master of all lands.

Half a day later, Song Chuan arrived at a riverbank.

This river is about ten feet wide, with a gentle current, and various kinds of spiritual herbs grow luxuriantly on its banks.

He looked it over, took out Duanmu Jingyi's silk handkerchief, examined it, and nodded.

This is the location of a type of Ganoderma lucidum called "Huangwenzhi," which is also one of the spiritual plants that Duanmu Jingyi highly values.

Song Chuan looked around, then suddenly narrowed his eyes and used earth magic to teleport underground.

A moment later, the water in the river parted, and a long, brown monster with short limbs leaped out.

This beast has a jade between its toes, a long and narrow tail, and a large fish in its mouth and on its forelimbs.

After leaping onto the shore, it used its claws to stun the fish one by one, and then placed them on the bank.

On the shore, dozens of large fish were arranged in a regular pattern, like offerings placed in a human ritual.

The beast crouched in front of the fish, watching them silently and motionless, which was somewhat eerie.

"Otter Sacrifice Fish... Mid-Tier 1"

Song Chuan murmured from underground.

It turns out that this is a demon beast that was transformed from an ordinary otter.

This beast had this habit of "offering fish" even when it was an ordinary beast, which is quite puzzling.

Some say they can communicate with the gods through sacrifices, while others say it's simply their cruel nature...

Song Chuan muttered to himself, "I never saw any gods in my previous life, and now that I'm cultivating immortality, there are even fewer gods around."

However, what made Song Chuan patiently hide in the soil was not this otter demon, but someone else!

Through the bead, his divine sense saw three white-robed men with gourds hanging from their waists standing thirty feet away.

Disciple of the Hanging Gourd Hall!

"Senior brother, there's another one here!"

"Otter demons only form groups during the breeding season; otherwise, they live alone. There should be one every few hundred feet along this river."

"How many heads would that be? We'd be rich!"

"Hmph! It's difficult for mortal beasts to transform into demons, how many could there be? Besides, if we catch so many, won't Master blame us when we get back!"

"Sigh, that old man is really something. These are all key ingredients for refining Otter Marrow Pills!"

"Hehe, but we can lie to Master and say that there are a lot of otter demons here, so we caught a few more. I think he will just give us a few words of punishment."

"Senior brother is indeed very thoughtful. Then I, junior brother, will unleash the Demon-Trapping Net."

Song Chuan, who was underground, raised an eyebrow and exclaimed, "Hmph!"

Goodness, you three are really something!

It seems that each sect has certain rules and regulations for entering the mountains, and it's not a matter of doing whatever you want.

Whether the disciples below will strictly abide by it remains to be seen.

Song Chuan, on the other hand, wondered if he had been too honest.

But I'm different from these three people who have masters. I have no backing, and if I break the rules, who knows what the consequences will be?

He shook his head, deciding to deal with these insignificant external matters later.

Honestly completing the task, obtaining the Foundation Establishment Pill, and securing the Fire Cultivation Hoe are better than anything else.

And the Emperor's Dew, if we can get it, that would be the greatest gain.

He looked at one of the three people, reached out and touched him, and a large yellow net covered the otter demon.

The otter demon, who had been completely focused on the fish, was caught in the trap before it could react.

It possessed a water-escape technique, but it was completely ineffective in this net. It struggled left and right for a long time but could not escape the net.

"It's still an earth-attribute magic artifact. You'd better capture the otter demon and leave. If you still want to harvest the Yellow-Striped Fungus, I don't mind putting in some effort to make this Kongsang Mountain Range have three more fertilizer plants!"

Song Chuan's eyes flickered, and a hint of coldness crept into his gaze.

However, the three of them put the otter demon into their spirit beast pouch and then left quickly, full of joy.

They had no idea that they had just narrowly escaped death.

Half an incense stick later, after the three left, Song Chuan emerged.

He paced back and forth on the shore a few times, occasionally using his spirit-detecting wire to probe the ground.

After a while, the spirit-detecting wire seemed to have detected something.

He retracted the spirit-testing wire and looked at the half that had sunk into the ground, which was blackish-purple.

He examined the ground, which appeared no different from ordinary ground, but he knew that this small patch of soil contained a deadly poison!

This is one of the reasons why he was very careful when using earth magic in the Kongsang Mountains.

The soil in which Huang Wenzhi lived was called "Black Soil," and any cultivator who touched it would die.

If it weren't for the label on Duanmu Jingyi's silk, he wouldn't have known about this poisonous soil.

The spiritual plants that Elder Duanmu asked him to collect were either highly poisonous or grew in highly poisonous environments.

Is this woman secretly a poison cultivator?

Poison cultivators are incredibly cunning. They usually use other techniques as a cover and will not expose their poison skills unless absolutely necessary, otherwise, those with ulterior motives will find a way to counter them.

But surely she wouldn't poison herself, a mere Qi Refining cultivator?

Song Chuan chuckled self-deprecatingly and circled the small patch of black earth he had discovered.

He possessed something that perfectly countered this soil: the fire-cultivating hoe given to him by Duanmu Jingyi.

This woman giving herself this top-tier magic weapon in advance was premeditated.

Like the Fire-blowing Velvet, the Yellow-Veined Ganoderma is a third-tier spiritual plant.

The strangeness of third-tier spiritual plants can be seen from the fire-blowing velvet; they are not so easy to collect.

Ordinary Qi Refining cultivators, unaware of its intricacies, would only die in confusion if they tried to harvest it.

Song Chuan took out the Fire-Cultivating Hoe, made a hand gesture, and dug the black soil with the hoe.

Suddenly, wisps of black smoke began to seep from that patch of black soil, growing larger and larger until they coalesced into a small patch of dark cloud.

Upon seeing this, Song Chuan changed his magic technique, and the Fire Harvester suddenly emitted a bright red light, spewing out a burst of flames that burned away all the surrounding dark energy!

This fire is the true power of the Fire-Cultivating Hoe; Song Chuan has never used it before.

Releasing this fire would also require Song Chuan to expend a considerable amount of magical power.

Seeing that the poisonous gas had dissipated, he directed the fire-wielding hoe to continue digging into the ground.

After digging about three or four zhang deep, they found something.

A quick scan with his divine sense revealed that the object resembled a lingzhi mushroom, covered with yellow stripes and brimming with spiritual energy.

He smiled slightly, but did not go closer to take it.

Instead, they used spirit-measuring wires to inject earth spirit power, loosening the roots of the yellow-veined fungus that were anchored in the soil from a distance.

About half an hour later, the spirit-testing thread pulled Huang Wenzhi up and placed her in a square box that Song Chuan had prepared beforehand.

Song Chuan carefully put it away and glanced at the messy black soil.

Although I have never heard of this land before, it must be of great value.

Unfortunately, I don't have any magical artifacts to contain this soil, and after leaving the mountain, the sect will investigate what cultivators have obtained.

He sighed, made a hand seal, and used the Flying Stone Technique to roughly restore this piece of black land to its original state.

After tidying himself up, he leaped away.

Just moments after Song Chuan left, the river rippled again, and an ugly, monstrous turtle surfaced.

Its beady eyes glanced at Song Chuan's retreating figure before it climbed ashore.

The demon licked the black soil a few times, but showed no signs of poisoning, and seemed to enjoy it immensely.

If Song Chuan were here, he would be able to recognize that this demonic turtle is actually a second-tier demonic beast!

The demon turtle ate a few more mouthfuls of black soil, then turned back into the water and sank.

"Strange! Just now, I felt like someone was watching me through the bead."

At this moment, Song Chuan, who was running all the way, was secretly puzzled and somewhat frightened.

However, after a closer look, nothing unusual was found.

He had no choice but to proceed with even greater caution towards his next target.